MONEY UPSIDE TOWN.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1396, 24 May 1923, Page 7

MONEY UPSIDE TOWN.

An Englishman is said to have changed a five pound note into French money, and was surprised to get so many francs for it—more than twice as many as lie got before the war. Then he changed his francs into German marks, and had to carry them in a hand bag. Next he bought Polish marks and received so many that he wheeled them away in a perambulator. The Polish marks he changed into Austrian kronen, and then needed a pantechnicon van to put them in. Finally he bought with the Austrian kronen so many Russian roubles lhsu they filled a long train! That is really not so very wild an exaggeration. Russia is worse off in this way than any country in Europe, for Pussi;.'''- new rulers deliberately set themselves to lower the value of roubles by printing them in vast, quantities Their object was to show the foolishness of money. A banknote ought to be a promise to pay. If the British Government could pay off all the holders of its notes in gold sovereigns our pound would be worth as much as it was before the war. The French franc is worth only half of its former value, the German mark about an eightieth, the Austrian kronen less than a three thousandth, the Russian rouble a hundred thousandth! This is because the note currencies of these States have been so increased that their Governnienls have no hope of redeeming themq As a consequence, the amount of currency, or goods, •which can be purchased for British, or American, money, both of which 'lave % kepl up their value fairly well, is bewildering. An American, dining in a Vienna restaurant, gave the waiter in payment of the bill a 20d.)l'ar nold piece about four times the size of a sovereign. The waiter looked at i' in amazement, took it to the proprietor, and came back, and said, "i am to give you as much change as you desire." Just before the war a Hungarian asked a friend in England to buy him certain articles which would cost altogether about 110. lie sent 240 Hungarian kronen, which then equalled thai amount. Before I lie articles could he bought war broke out. Only lately did the Hungarian's q present .address become known to his friend. The Englishman sen! him t.'l'i. widen, he changed into -Ml.nnh kronen! Peasants who buried (heir gold and silver coins when metal money grew scarce have been able to buy with them immense sums of paper money. But there are more paupers than millionaires to-day (says the Children's Newspaper). Set against all this the sad plight of an old couple who lived on an income of 10.000 kronen, derived from an investment. It was worth £4OO in our money, and they lived in comfort. Today it is worth :Is. and they are in dire distress.